‘Worth the wait’: Randy Dreiling delivers first football state title to Aquinas
It took five years, but the wait is over.
Randy Dreiling accomplished what he came to St. Thomas Aquinas to do: deliver the first football state championship in program history.
The Saints prevailed in a battle of unbeatens on Saturday afternoon at Pittsburg State’s Carnie Smith Stadium, winning the Kansas Class 5A high school championship with a 49-28 victory over Wichita Northwest behind 329 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns from sophomore running back Tank Young.
After guiding Hutchinson to seven state championships in eight years, Dreiling left to pursue a new challenge at Aquinas. The culmination of his work — Aquinas lost in the 5A title game to Bishop Carroll in 2014 and 2017 — was rewarded on Saturday.
“Kids anywhere want to be successful and they want to know you have a plan,” Dreiling said. “We brought a plan that they knew worked. It took us five years, but we’ve been here three times and you can’t always win the (title) game.
“I’m happy for the kids and I’m happy for the kids that came before them and the Aquinas fans. It’s been a long wait, but I’m pretty sure it was worth it.”
Experience seemed to play a factor between the two teams.
Northwest was playing in its first state championship game since 1996, while Aquinas was fueled by motivation from losing in last year’s title game.
“We’re state champions today because we knew what it felt like to be here and to lose,” Aquinas senior lineman Tommy Tholen said. “That was our motivation to push ourselves harder.”
“Our kids knew that nothing is given to you in this game,” Dreiling said. “Our goal was to take it.”
That’s exactly how to describe what Aquinas did in the first quarter, scoring three touchdowns to establish a 21-0 lead on Northwest. The Saints capitalized off a Northwest turnover, then Young broke a 47-yard touchdown run and Tate Raboin found Theo Grabill on a play-action pass for a 33-yard score.
“We talk a lot about momentum and we call it riding the wave and knowing when to get off the wave,” Northwest coach Steve Martin said. “We didn’t do a good job of getting off the wave, but give credit to Aquinas.”
Northwest’s offense had scored at least 55 points for 11 straight weeks and was producing video game statistics. It all begins for the Grizzlies with their inside zone running game with Breece Hall, a part of the game plan that was completely eliminated on Saturday by Aquinas defensive tackles Javier Derritt and Peyton Reeves.
By plugging up the middle, the work done by Derritt and Reeves allowed linebackers Zach Goodeyon and Bo Meisenheimer to combine for 19 tackles and limit the Grizzlies to 110 rushing yards for the game. Northwest trailed 21-0 at halftime and its explosive offense had been contained to 2.7 yards per play, three first downs and zero conversions on third-down plays.
“We watch a lot of film and we see the teams they played against and we noticed how they haven’t really seen a defense like ours,” said Derritt, who had eight tackles. “We knew we were going to keep them to a low score.”
Aquinas led 35-0 after back-to-back touchdowns runs by Young of longer than 60 yards, but Northwest’s offense couldn’t be held down for long. The Grizzlies scored three touchdowns in a row to trim the deficit to 35-21 with 9:40 remaining in the fourth quarter.
But Aquinas answered back with a 70-yard pass from Raboin to Jack Gabel to all but seal the victory.
“I couldn’t be happier for this group of guys,” Gabel said. “No one deserved it more than us. We’ve worked so hard since last year. We had that feeling of losing and for it to come full circle here, it’s so special.”
“Coach Dreiling is the best coach in the state of Kansas, probably in the whole country,” Raboin added. “I’m so grateful I was with him for four years and he really deserves this state championship.”
It was a celebration for the 2018 Aquinas players, but the seniors said it was also a celebration for all of those seniors who came before them.
“It really shouldn’t have taken so long, but in the end we got it done,” Derritt said. “This is a win for all of the past football players that have ever been through Aquinas. That was our goal to represent those guys and finally bring a state championship to Aquinas.”
St. Thomas Aquinas 49, Wichita Northwest 28
St. Thomas Aquinas (12-0) 21-0-14-14—49
Wichita Northwest (11-1) 0-0-14-14—28
First quarter
Aquinas: Young 2 run (O’Leary kick), 5:42
Aquinas: Young 47 run (O’Leary kick), 2:11
Aquinas: Grabill 33 pass from Raboin (O’Leary kick), 0:38
Third quarter
Aquinas: Young 67 run (O’Leary kick), 11:51
Aquinas: Young 62 run (O’Leary kick), 7:49
Northwest: Johnson 64 run (Arndt kick), 7:34
Northwest: Hall 77 pass from R. Jones (Arndt kick), 3:15
Fourth quarter
Northwest: Hall 1 run (Arndt kick), 9:40
Aquinas: Gabel 70 pass from Raboin (O’Leary kick), 8:36
Northwest: Hall 71 pass from R. Jones (Arndt kick), 1:37
Aquinas: Barnett 50 kickoff return (O’Leary kick), 1:31
Individual statistics
Rushing: Aquinas, Young 34-329, O’Leary 2-21, Barnett 4-12, McCormick 1-2, Raboin 8-0, Team 2-(-2), Jackson 1-(-2); Northwest, Johnson 7-65, Hall 12-28, R. Jones 14-17.
Passing: Aquinas, Raboin 5-10-0-133; Northwest, R. Jones 12-26-1-283, Hall 0-1-0-0, Johnson 1-1-0-13.
Receiving: Aquinas, Grabill 3-50, Gabel 1-70, Gavin 1-13; Northwest, Patterson 5-52, Hall 3-189, Cupps 2-9, Z. Jones 1-29, R. Jones 1-13, Johnson 1-4.
This story was originally published November 24, 2018 at 5:28 PM.